As of summer 2022, leasing activity in the Kyiv office market was near a standstill and primarily driven by office optimization, as well as lease renewals and renegotiations of existing leases, according to the latest research of CBRE Ukraine. Whereas, as of the beginning of June, we observed a slight recovery in the level of office occupancy by employees who continued to work or who returned to Kyiv. Thus, typical office attendance among corporate occupiers was ca. 10% with many tenants in IT, high tech & telecommunications, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, FMCG and industrial sectors planning to increase occupancy to 15%.

Dimitris Raptis, Globalworth Group CEO, spoke to Property Forum about the investments made to secure a smooth return of employees to the company’s office buildings and the importance of sustainability and market-leading certifications in a hybrid work ecosystem.

Affiliates of Lone Star Funds have acquired a real estate package from Cavatina Holding S.A. After announcing their intention to go ahead with the deal in June, the parties managed to quickly bring it to a conclusion. Carbon Tower in Wrocław, Ocean Office Park A and Tischnera Office in Kraków offer a total of nearly 66,000 sqm of GLA with an average lease rate of approx. 90%. The deal amounted to more than €139 million.

In H1 2022, GTC’s net profit amounted to €41 million in H1 2022 (compared to €21 million in H1 2021). This mainly resulted from a strong operating performance combined with profit from revaluation/impairment of assets and lower finance cost, partially offset by an increase in foreign exchange differences loss.

Slovak developer Corwin has sold the Blumental office centre in Bratislava to Czech real estate fund ZFP realitní fond. With more than 21,000 sqm of lettable area, it is one of the largest Bratislava office transactions of 2022. The price of the acquisition has not been disclosed.

First Property Group has acquired another 7,171 sqm (or 32.1%) of Blue Tower in Warsaw city centre, bringing its ownership of the property up to 80.3% (17,937 sqm).

GTC signed an SPA to sell its Matrix A and B office buildings in Zagreb to a strong local real estate group from Croatia. This transaction will mark a return on cost exceeding 22% and is about 7% above the book value. GTC’s ability to sell assets well above the book value demonstrates that the current discount to NAV on its share price is not justified.

Real estate investments amounting to around €1.2 billion are currently in various stages of negotiation, while over €600 million in investment volumes were completed in the first eight months of this year, according to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

CTP has officially launched the construction of a CZK 1.5 billion office building which will close the first stage of the Brno Ponávka complex development and will offer its tenants state-of-the-art technological, and environmentally sustainable solutions. At the same time, a modern urban park worth CZK 30 million is being built in the complex, as a cooperation between the developer and the City of Brno, as well as the third part of the cycle path connecting the Ponávka and Vlněna complexes.

The Polish office market has more than 12.6 million sqm of modern space at the end of Q2 2022. Traditionally, Warsaw remains the leader in total stock, with eight major regional markets led by Krakow and Wroclaw not slowing down. An example is Tricity, which joined the ranks of office millionaires in the second quarter of this year. Optimism from rising demand is emerging from the market picture. AXI IMMO presents a data summary for the first half of 2022 on the Polish office market.